


In the shadows

by Anarik



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amused Derek Hale, Attempt at Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, College, Conversations, Danny Mahealani & Lydia Martin Friendship, Danny Mahealani Knows, Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, Derek Hale is a Softie, Drive Safely, Driving, Fluff, High School, How Do I Tag, Humor, I'm Bad At Tagging, Investigations, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Lydia Martin is Perfect, M/M, Matchmaker Lydia, Minor Scott McCall/Malia Tate, Nobody knows, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-High School, Sarcastic Stiles Stilinski, Sassy Derek Hale, Sassy Lydia, Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Scott is a Good Friend, Scott is a Tease, Stiles Stilinski is Derek Hale's Anchor, Stiles Stilinski is Eighteen Years Old, Stiles Stilinski is a Little Shit, Tags Are Hard, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tags May Change, There's plot, after the wild hunt but there no inukawat, derek was taken by the wild hunt, five plus one but with a twist, insecure ways to hold conversations while driving, instead of peter, long conversations, scott get a hold of your phone please, she works hard on that, where is Peter, where's Isaac?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-10-26 16:43:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17749649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarik/pseuds/Anarik
Summary: Five times Derek drove Stiles in the Camaro, and one time he was waiting for him.





	1. At school

**Author's Note:**

> Am I really posting another multy-chapter work without finishing the ones I have in progress here and on Word? Why, yes, that is exactly what I'm doing! :D
> 
> Sadly, Teen Wolf does not belong to me. It's property of MTV and Jeff Davis. Believe me, if that show was mine it would have ended very differently. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this one, it's full of humor and a somewhat plot.

Stiles gets off the Camaro with a deep frown, blinking at the sunlight and rubbing away a few crusts off his eyes. He waves goodbye at Derek, who only nods and drives away. There are still a few students outside of the school, and he very well hears one of the girls he has classes with say something along the lines of: “Isn’t that the guy who used to drive the epileptic girl around town?”

Why yes, Lucy, that _is_ the guy that used to drive Erica Reyes around town. But in case you were wondering, Lucy. No, Stiles is not banging a dead girl’s “ex-boyfriend”. Stiles is, actually, trying to investigate where the hell Isaac Lahey is, and why he dropped off the face of the earth for so long without Chris fucking Argent worrying about him for being MIA (he knows he’s probably exaggerating). Stiles finds Scott near the stairs and he watches as Scott lightheartedly smirks at him.

“Dude, you smell like…”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Scott McCall.” Stiles snaps, a deadly glare accompanying his tone. “I am very much aware I smell like him and I am also very much aware that I look like shit. You may be wondering why! Which you would _know_ is you didn’t turn off your stupid phone every time you’re on a date with Malia!” he finishes with a cold tone.

“I…” Scott looks baffled and ashamed. “I’m sorry, dude. I meant to call you last night after I got home-.”

“But you didn’t.”

“But I didn’t. I completely forgot. I’m really sorry.” He scratches the back of his neck and gets a little bit too close. “What were you guys doing?” he says with a suggestive tone, wiggly eyebrows and all.

“It’s not like that, bro.” Stiles puts his hand on Scott’s face and gently pushes away making him, in turn, laugh. “We’re looking for Isaac.”

“Lahey?”

“No, Scott. Newton.”

“I don’t know any Isaac Newton?”

“How did you pass seventh grade? One of the many questions your mom and I ask ourselves every single day.” Stiles pats Scott’s cheek and sighs. “Yes, Scott. Lahey. We haven’t heard of Isaac ever since he left. Nothing. Nada. We don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“He’s in France.” Scott says, like that’s an excuse or the answer to all the questions.

“Scotty. Bro. My brother from another mother. Buddy. My best friend.”

“Make your point.”

“You have only a limited number of months to stay in another country. You can’t stay forever, unless you’re working or studying of course, and may I remind you that Isaac is still underage, and he left in Summer? It’s been a year since he left. He hasn’t said a word to us in the many months he’s been in France. He _doesn’t_ have any family left here for us to know if he’s even alive. Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious?”

The bell chooses to ring in the exact moment Scott opens his mouth to answer, a frown deep in his face and a distasteful curve on his mouth.

“You’re right.” He says once the sound is over.

“I know I am. Derek and I are worried something happened to him and we didn’t know. We spent the whole night trying to contact the family Isaac was left with, but they didn’t answer. We didn’t sleep in favor of contacting different phone numbers and a list of hunters Chris gave us, but they don’t know anything. Also, I need you to keep me awake today.”

“Sure. Do you believe them, though?”

“I completely appreciate the evolution of your distrust to hunters. But yeah, we do. Derek was listening to their heartbeats over the phone and the few videocalls we did. There’s nothing on Isaac.”

They arrive to their classroom, Lydia already sitting with her book open and taking some notes, probably reading today’s lesson.

“Hey, Lyds. I’ll need your help later today looking for something. Also, Danny’s help, probably, if you still have his number?”

“I do. Are we looking for a something or a some _one_.”

“Someone. I’ll tell you later the details. We’ll need to go to Derek’s.”

“And speaking of Derek…”

“Don’t.” Stiles closes his eyes and the open nostrils indicate that he’s taking a deep breath. “Just. Don’t.”

Scott just laughs.

*

Lydia looks at him with a raised eyebrow when she sees Stiles climbing in the passenger seat of her car. Stiles smiles at her and raises both eyebrows.

“Derek drove me today. And Scott has lacrosse practice.”

“I often wonder why I put up with you.”

“Because you _loooooooveeeee_ me.”

“And I seriously ask myself if there’s something wrong with me.”

Stiles snorts and smiles knowingly at her, not answering, pretty much because she will probably take her eyes off the road and they’ve already encounter themselves in front of their worst nightmares, a car accident is not going to be what kills them.

“Hey, turn to your house. We need to go there first and then to mine.” Lydia turns her head to look at him. “Lydia, eyes on the road!”

There you have it.

“And why, pray tell” she says, turning her head again “, do we need to stop at mine and then at yours?”

“Because-.”

“Stiles,” she says warningly “I am not going to stay at Derek’s tonight while I have a perfectly made bed-.”

“Derek has-.”

“AND a perfectly good closet that I am not going to tear apart in five minutes trying to decide which is the perfect look for tomorrow. So _please_ think your answer very carefully.”

Stiles stays quiet, opening his mouth a couple of times before closing it again without making any sound.

“Let’s just stop at mine so I can get clean underwear and a shirt.”

“And a different pair of jeans.”

“Lydia…”

“I can drop your ass here and then drive to Derek’s alone,” she sing-song and Stiles groans. “Come on, I’ll help you pick the jeans.”

*

It’s an hour after that when they pull in the loft’s parking lot because Lydia took her sweet time checking every piece of clean clothes Stiles had inside his closet, and the chair beside his bed. Stiles turns to the backseat to get a few books before he gets out of the car and when he does, Lydia is already opening the building’s door. She leaves it open for him to enter and then closes it again.

“Thanks.”

He opens the book that’s on top and lets her take it from the pile. She hums at him while pushing the button for the elevator. They stay in silence, waiting for the elevator to arrive to the first floor. Once it does, Lydia pushes the 14th floor and the door closes.

“I am _really_ glad Derek decided to fix the elevator.” Stiles comments offhandedly, looking at the numbers change while they go up.

“It’s less dramatic, though.”

“Nah. You can always run for the stairs if there’s something happening. I very much prefer the elevator.”

Once they get to the 14th floor, they both can see that the loft’s door is open, and that Derek is casually sitting on the sofa. Casually may be a strong word if you ask Lydia.

“Thanks, Derek,” Stiles says, dropping the books on the table near the picture windows. “Could you find anything?”

“You still haven’t explained to me what we’re doing here.” Lydia interrupts before Derek answers.

“Shit. That’s true.” Stiles scrubs his eyes with his fists and, not for the first time in the day, lets out a yawn. “We’re looking for Isaac.”

“Lahey?”

“Why do they always think there’s another Isaac?” Stiles questions and Derek shrugs. “Yes, Lyds. Lahey. Don’t look at me like that, Scott asked me the same thing. It’s like you know any other Isaac’s that are missing.”

“He’s not missing, though.” She says, ignoring his first comment.

“He…  is? We don’t know anything about him since he left?” Stiles answers, checking a map of Europe. “Or do you know where he is?” he asks her, looking at her with a hopeful look. “‘Cause I’m not gonna lie, that’d be awesome.”

“I don’t. But Jackson told me they saw each other six months ago.”

Derek perks up at that. “In London?” he asks her, eyes lost, frown on his face.

“Yeah. He didn’t tell me what they talked about, but Jackson said that Isaac was leaving England. That he was there just for a couple of days.” Lydia gets closer to the map and she sees that Stiles is putting a little pin on England. So far there are two, the other one is on France.

“Ok. So, France and England. That still doesn’t explain why he left the family he was with in the first place,” Derek says standing up and walking to the table. “Is there any way we can know where he’s been without wasting so much time calling people?”

“We can call Danny, if Isaac still has his phone Danny can track it, right?” Stiles says looking at Lydia while taking his phone out of his pocket. Lydia sighs and gets hers as well, scrolling through her contacts to get Danny’s number. “Thanks.” Stiles says and turns to look out the window, biting his thumb. “Hey, Danny! It’s Stiles, I-.”

Derek snorts.

“What happened?” Lydia asks, frowning, Stiles looks at his phone, frowning.

“He hung up on me.”

Derek snorts again.

“Shut up.” Stiles fumbles with his phone and puts it on speaker. “Danny Boy, don’t hang up on me again. You’re on speaker.”

“Stiles. I thought I told you to lose my number.”

“I did. Lydia gave it to me again.”

“Hey, Danny.”

“You’re a traitor.”

“It’s important.”

“When is it not? Wait a second.” he sighs, and they hear some offhand conversation before a door is closing. “Go ahead.”

“Is there any way you can help us track someone with their phone number?”

“Why do you always contact me when you need something illegal?”

“Because the only other time you offered something else for me you were joking.”

“Ah, yeah. The sex-request thing.” There’s a cough from Derek and a snort from Lydia. “Who is there with you? Aside from Lydia.”

“Derek Hale.”

“Ah… Cousin Miguel?” they can hear Danny’s smirk over the phone and Lydia raises her eyebrows at them.

“Why am I not surprised you know he wasn’t my cousin?”

“It wasn’t a believable lie, Stiles. The guy’s face was all over the papers. I didn’t say anything because of the little show you made him pull.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think that one through. Also, he banged my head with my steering weal!”

“You deserved it.” Danny and Derek say at the same time and Stiles sighs, defeated.

“Can you help us or not?” Lydia asks, exasperated.

“Even if I say no, Stiles is going to insist until I accept. What do you need?”

“We’re looking for Isaac Lahey. He left around the same time you did. We haven’t heard from him since the moment he left. We know he isn’t in France right now and that he was in England six months ago because Jackson talked to him, but that’s about it.”

“Yeah, Jackson told me they saw each other. Around the same time he met Ethan.”

“Ethan, your ex-boyfriend Ethan?” Stiles asks, incredulously.

“Yup. They’re dating now.”

“Called it!” Lydia says with a smile. Stiles rolls his eyes. “He _is_ everyone’s type.”

“He really isn’t.” Danny and Stiles say at the same time.

“Text me the number and I’ll see what I can find. I have to go.”

“Thank you so much, Danny! I’ll repay you!”

“Sure thing, Stiles.” The voice is full of sarcasm before the hangs up again and Stiles looks at them with a smile.

“Ok, so that’s that. I’ll text it immediately and let’s see if we can find something with the list of hunters.”

*

The next day, Stiles arrives again in the Camaro, he’s laughing when he opens the door and Derek looks promptly done with him. Stiles thanks him and Derek rolls his eyes, driving away once Stiles closes the door. He walks to the school and passes Lucy and her friend again, in the same spot they were yesterday, and catches Malia reading in one of the tables in campus.

“Hey!” Stiles says once he reaches her and she looks up, scrunching her face when he sits with her.

“Did you roll naked on Derek’s bed?” she asks, bluntly as ever.

“What? No!” he says, looking down at himself. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, my god, Stiles. Did you cover yourself in Derek’s sweat or something?” Scott says instead of a greeting, and Stiles frowns at him. Lydia in tug.

“I slept on his couch and he only gave me a t-shirt to sleep with.”

“Yeah, but did you shower there?” Lydia smirks, sitting beside him.

“I mean, yes? I wasn’t going to come here without showering since yesterday. I sweat a lot.”

“But did you really have to use his soap? His _shampoo_?” Scott asks, and it borders on this side of a whine.

“What did you want me to do? Shower with only water? It’s almost Summer, Scott, you can’t expect me to shower with wipes. Do _you_ shower with wipes?”

“Stop deflecting, Stiles.” Lydia says, lowering her face so her eyes look judgy from where he’s standing, as she smirks at him.

“I’m not deflecting! It’s a totally legitimate question.” The three of them roll their eyes at him and he’s hurt by their judgyness. “In all seriousness, though. I spent the night at his place, and I _had to_ come to school, of course I was gonna shower there. Besides, it’s not like I remembered to take my soap or my shampoo there, or that he miraculously has a sample of those things. So, stop judging me for doing what I could to come showered to school.” He crosses his arms and frowns at them.

“Did he say something about the outfit? Lydia asks after a second of silence.

“Umm… no?” Stiles looks at her like she doesn’t make sense. “Did he have to say something?”

“I need to work harder.” Lydia says, determined look on her face as she turns around.

“Wha-.”

The bell rings and Malia and Scott take their stuff and get up. Scott claps his hand on Stiles’ shoulder and he’s left there, surprised and confused, for three seconds.

“Lydia! What do you mean by that!?”


	2. At home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: abuse of italics, conversations that are longer than expected, trauma about the nogitsune. If a dialogue paragraph looks longer than expected is because there's more dialogue in there. Hunt the dialogue!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it <3

It’s three seventeen in the morning when a black car pulls in front of the Sheriff’s house. The car lights turn off and a few seconds later the passenger door opens. Stiles gets out of the car; the light blue shirt he wore to school in the morning is now covered in some black thing, staining it, and he’s completely sure that it’s not going to come out.

“Text me when you get home. I’ll probably don’t get any sleep tonight.” He whispers loudly to the driver, then he bends down to get his backpack from the car’s floor. “Ugh. I’ll burn this shirt in the morning.”

“I’ll text you something you can do to get the stain out.”

“Thanks, Derek. You’re the best.” Stiles closes the door and waves.

The car lights turn on again and the car gets out of the driveway, and it stays put for a second before taking off. Stiles sighs, hangs his backpack on his shoulder, looks at his shirt again and denies with his head. He gets his keys out of his pockets and opens the front door.

*

Stiles is in Derek’s car again. It’s becoming somewhat of a pattern. Stiles can count with one hand the amount of times he’s been inside Derek’s Camaro, and four of them, if he counts today -and he’s totally doing that-, can be traced to the last month. At least this time he’s going home at a decent hour and with his clothes completely out of goo from dubious origins. He’s been staying until really late at Derek’s, trying to create a thread of where Isaac has been, and there would probably be a big piece of paper that said “ _Where in the world is Isaac Lahey_ ” if Derek weren’t against fun and references.

The piece of paper is more like two A0 sheets of paper, glued at the corners so it forms a large banner… it _might_ have glitter, and the letter are _possibly_ written with multi-colored pens.

Anyway. Derek’s driving him home after a long afternoon and night of making more calls and finding out that the family Isaac was left with was murdered. They’re trying to find out the details about that, and if they were hunters or any other supernatural creature, or if they were just humans in the know. It would be much easier if Chris Argent was in town, or if he picked his damn phone, but he’s in Sacramento with Scott, at some Hunter-Werewolf peace thing with a pack there. Chris Argent is getting too much influence on technology by Scott if you ask Stiles.

“Has Danny contacted you yet?” Derek asks. He has Frown #5: _I’ve been thinking about this for longer than I want to admit_ on.

“Nope. He said that he would say something once he gathered the most information he could. It’s been two weeks and a half, I think he should be calling soon.”

“…” Derek makes a turn to the right, getting into Stiles’ house street. “Do you think Isaac wants to be found?” His voice almost sounds small, like he’s doubting what they’re doing.

“Do you want me to be honest?” Stiles asks, and Derek nods without taking his eyes off the road. “I don’t think so. I mean” Derek raises his eyebrows. “, if he’s been kidnapped or if he’s hurt, he’ll probably want to be found, you know? But if he’s healthy and well? Maybe not so much. He left with the idea of not coming back.” Stiles starts playing with his seatbelt as he pointedly avoids looking at Derek. “Or I think he did. Nobody knew he was gonna leave until after he and Argent left.”

“I knew.” Derek says, coming to a stop in front of the Stilinski household. Stiles looks at him surprised. “He told me when he made the decision. He came by the loft one day after school and told me that he was leaving. I don’t know if he wanted me to question him or ask him to stay here… I told him that if he considered that to be the best course of action then he should do it. He nodded and left.”

“Did he… did he ask you to lend him some money for the trip?”

“No. He used the inheritance from his father and mother.”

“Damn it.”

“Why?”

“Well, if he had asked you to give him credit cards or something like that, then we would’ve been able to track where he’s used them. Again, we need Danny for that but…”

“He did have them. He returned them before he left.”

“Shit.”

They stay silent for a minute, taking in that Isaac probably took his time planning what he was going to do so no one would’ve been able to trace him. _Maybe that’s why Danny’s taking so long_ , Stiles thinks.

“We don’t need to bring him back.” Stiles offers when he notices that Derek looks completely devastated by the fact that Isaac left with the intention of never contacting them, _him_ ¸ again. “We only need to know if he’s ok.” Stiles puts a hand on Derek’s shoulder and he feels the tension on them. “We only need to know he’s safe.”

Derek nods and he still looks lost. Stiles sighs and takes off his seatbelt, and the movement seems to have woken Derek from the stupor. He looks at Stiles get out of the car, waits for him to be bending down and before he closes the door, he tosses him a notebook he keeps in the glove box.

“Take this. There are notes, names and numbers of certain packs in Europe. We can call them tomorrow and see if they’ve got something on him.”

“Sure.” Stiles packs it inside his backpack and says, “thanks for driving me. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

Stiles closes the door and tries to ignore the fact that Derek waits for him to get inside the house to start the car again and leave.

*

“Are you going to Derek’s again today?” Scott asks the moment they pass the school doors.

All the students are getting out and going to the parking lot or just disappearing from the campus. It’s Friday and it shows that the high schoolers are ready to start on the frenzy that is the weekend.

“Nope.”

“Do you want to play video games tonight?”

“Can’t. Derek and I are going to Colusa to talk to a witch about Isaac. We’re gonna see if she can perform a tracking spell for us.”

“Dude, but that’s like five hours away!”

“I know. That’s why we’re leaving this afternoon. I’ll be back on Sunday.”

Scott looks at him surprised, eyes and mouth wide open, and eyebrows raised. After a few seconds his surprised expression turns amused and there’s a smirk on his lips.

“So, you’re doing a get-away weekend with Derek, huh?” he says, teasing him.

“Stop.” Stiles rolls his eyes and sighs exasperated. “Did you really not hear what I just said?”

“No, I did. You’re visiting a witch. But it’ll be ten hours of you guys in a car, and then the time you have to spend together at motel rooms during the weekend.”

“You really need to stop thinking with your penis.” Stiles says, patting Scott’s cheek and turning to the driver’s side of the Jeep.

“Kettle,” Scott says pointing at Stiles while he climbs on the passenger seat. “Pot” he points at himself.

“Excuse me. I’ll have you know that I’ve stopped thinking with my dick for over a year now.”

Scott is going to make a joke about it when he notices that Stiles has tensed up and that his hands are turning white from how hard he’s gripping the steering wheel.

“Stiles…”

“Drop the subject, Scott.” He forces himself to say and Scott can see the subtle movements he makes with his fingers, like he’s counting them.

“Ok.”

*

“Are you ok? You’ve been out of it the whole weekend.” Derek asks him once they pass the _You’re leaving Colusa_ sign.

“Yeah, I just got reminded of something these past few days and it fucked me up again.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

Stiles looks at him with a contemplative frown and then turns to look outside through the window. Derek thinks that that’s a signal for him to not make any more questions about it, and to just drop the subject.

“Did you know that I had sex with Malia?” Stiles asks a few seconds after, when Derek is debating himself about which topic would be better to distract the conversation, and because of that he looks shocked. “I know. Not something you want to hear about your cousin.” Stiles continues, “but I don’t mean to bring it up because of just the fact that we did. Have sex, I mean. But because around that time I was already possessed by the Nogitsune… And I’ve often wondered if that was really me or not. It-,” Stiles cuts himself to scrub at his eyes with his fists, like he’s rubbing sleep out of them, but Derek is sure that’s not the case. If someone asks him, Stiles didn’t have glossy eyes. “It makes me so uncomfortable to think that I… that he… There was this silly joke Scott made about me thinking with my dick and I just…”

Derek parks the car at the side of the road. Stiles looks at him confused for a second and Derek looks at him with a pointed look.

“Come on, let’s get out of the car for a second.”

He waits for Stiles to be actually opening the car’s door to get out himself.

“This is not my body.” Stiles mumbles while a tear rolls down his cheek. He quickly cleans it away.

“Stiles…”

“It’s _not_ , Derek. I know you weren’t there that day and you’ve probably been filled in by Scott or someone else, but it’s not. The Nogitsune split in two to get a hold of my body, my _original_ body. And that one was destroyed when Scott bit him and… I know the differences, Derek. There aren’t moles where they used to be, there aren’t scars from when I fell on my bike when I was nine. My _body_ is different and it just… I just feel so uncomfortable in this skin because I’m aware it’s not _mine_. It’s not the body I was born in and grew up, and it will _never_ be again.”

Stiles laughs bitterly, throwing his head to the back and making a sour expression. Derek doesn’t know what to say to everything he’s telling him. Stiles has put so much thought into it that it seems like whatever he does or says will only sound like an excuse to him. Derek decides at that moment that he’ll look into possessions some more, because he never really thought about how Stiles would feel after all that was dealt with, and he thinks Scott didn’t think of it either.

“It was just a silly joke, you know. And it’s been a year. I just need to get my act together.”

“No…” Derek says, making Stiles look at him with a questioning look. “I don’t think the answer lies on getting your act together or not. I’m not sure where it lies yet, but we’ll figure it out.”

“You don’t need to-.”

“I do, Stiles. I will do _anything_ to make you feel better.”

Stiles looks at him amazed and says: “Who are you and what did you do with Derek Hale?”

Derek snorts and pushes him to the car.

“Come on. We’re gonna be late.”

*

When the car pulls at the Stilinski’s driveway, the lights of the house are on and Derek can hear the Sheriff checking for something to eat in the kitchen. He turns to look at Stiles, who’s completely asleep, and sighs. He gets out of the car and decides that it’s better if the front door is open before he takes Stiles out of the car. He knocks and a few seconds later the Sheriff opens the door.

“Oh, hey Derek.” His voice sounds tired and he’s still wearing his uniform, Derek guesses he just came from work.

“Sheriff.” Derek nods and then turns a little bit. “Stiles is asleep in my car, I don’t want to wake him up. Can you help me keeping the door open so he doesn’t fall or something?”

Sheriff Stilinski looks at him like he’s trying to process whatever Derek just said and then he nods. “Sure.”

When they reach the car, the Sheriff opens the door and Derek quickly reacts as he grabs Stiles before he falls off. Carefully, he puts his arms below his armpits and under his knees and he lifts him up like he weights nothing. He starts walking to the house as the Sheriff grabs the backpack from the backseats. They both go upstairs, quietly, and it’s a team effort to open the bedroom’s door and flick the switch up. Derek lays Stiles on the bed as the Sheriff takes Stiles’ shoes off, and then both turn around to get out of the room. The Sheriff turns off the light and closes the door, guiding Derek to the front door again.

“I’ll call the school tomorrow morning before I leave for work to tell them that Stiles is sick.” He says, turning around a little bit and looking upstairs.

“He’ll probably need some sleep, yeah.” Derek turns around to leave but then he decides against it and looks at John Stilinski, who’s ready to close the door. “Sheriff, have you noticed him picking on his skin? Or maybe some minimal bruises?”

John frowns and looks at him suspiciously. “No… But I’m not here most of the time. I think you’ll need to ask Scott or Lydia for that.”

“No, it’s ok. I just wanted to make sure of something… Have a nice night.”

“You too.”


	3. At stores

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say for myself.
> 
> Kind of abuse of italics? I'm getting fluffier, I don't know what's happening to me.

Stiles is sitting on Derek’s couch, reading a magazine about how to knit because he needs something to distract himself in times of quiet and peace. Other than searching for Isaac, of course. It’s been three weeks since Stiles asked Danny to do his magic computer things using the GPS tracker and he still hasn’t gotten back at them. Stiles was starting to worry about something happening to Danny, since he wasn’t answering his texts or phone calls. He was almost ready to call a search party for him too, but Lydia told him that Danny was completely ok, and that he just doesn’t want to answer him.

Stiles is a little hurt by that, he’s not gonna lie.

The point is, he’s reading a magazine about how to knit, sitting on Derek’s couch, inside Derek’s new apartment.

Yeah. Derek moved to a new place. It has concrete walls and a large kitchen. And also, _two_ rooms, separated from the living room. Stiles is ecstatic.

When Derek comes out of his room, he’s still drying his hair with a towel, wearing jeans that hang low on his hips and his shirt is on his hand. Stiles suddenly feels his throat go dry and he pointedly focuses on generating saliva and reading. Derek finishes drying his hair, lets the towel hang at the back of the dining chair (that’s another thing. He has a dining table!) and then puts his shirt on.

“Did you put on some weight?” Stiles asks once he sees the less-marked-but-still-marked abs.

“What?” Derek lowers his head and discovers his stomach a little bit, Stiles focuses on it too. “Huh. Seems like it.”

“I like it,” he says before he can catch himself. Derek looks at him surprised. “It makes you look more human. It’s a good look on you, really.” Derek seems pleased when he turns around and enters the kitchen.

Stiles grabs his phone and opens his notes, types down the items he needs to buy if he wants to start knitting.

“Hey, can you drive me to the yarn store in Main?” Stiles says while typing.

“… the yarn store?” Derek asks after finishing a glass of juice.

“Yep. I wanna learn how to knit. I need a distraction.” Stiles throws the magazine inside his already opened backpack and zips it, standing up. “You drove me here to show me your place, remember?”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to do it. It just took me by surprise.” Derek says, getting out of the kitchen. “Give me one second I put some shoes on and we’ll go.”

“Yay!” Stiles smiles brightly at Derek. “I’ll get going, I’ll wait for you outside.”

*

Stiles is tapping his knee with his fingers; the music is on low inside the car and he’s looking out through the window’s glass. They haven’t said a word since they entered the car and now, they’re near the yarn store. Stiles is thinking about which colors he’s going to pick for his first knitting project when Derek calls his name.

“Hmm?” Stiles answers, turning to look at him.

“Do you really think that me putting on weight is good?”

“What?” Stiles takes a second to register Derek’s words and frowns a little bit. “Yeah. Like I said, it makes you look more human. I mean, I’m going to mourn the abs if they disappear completely but yeah, I think it’s good.” Derek narrows his eyes at him and has a funny look in his eyes. “What?”

“… Nothing.”

Stiles shrugs and continues. “I mean, it probably is because I kind of connect healthiness with eating, you know? When I was possessed by the Nogitsune I just stopped eating altogether so… To me, eating is a sign of getting better.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Derek says lowly. “I have been eating more. I mean, I’ve been cooking and someone has to eat the food, so yeah…” Now it’s Stiles’ turn to look at him with narrowed eyes. “What?”

“You have been cooking?” Stiles says, he seems indignant.

“Yes? I do eat, you know? You’ve seen me.”

“I’ve seen you eat. Takeout. Derek, I’ve stayed overnight at your place more times than I can count with my fingers and you’ve never, not once, cooked breakfast for me.”

“You know I’m not a morning person.”

“Again, and I cannot stress this enough, I’ve stayed _overnight_ and all of those times we’ve ordered _takeout_! When we could’ve been eating healthier! Derek!” Stiles flails and starts hitting Derek’s arm softly. Derek snorts.

“Ok, ok, I get it. Next time you go by the apartment I’ll have a special meal cooked for you.”

“ _Thank_ you.”

Derek parks in front of the yarn store and Stiles stays where he is for a few seconds before he grabs his backpack.

“Do you want me to wait for you?” Derek asks when he sees Stiles opening the car’s door.

“Nah, it’s ok. My house is near and I have to go home to make dinner for my dad and me – see what I did there? I cook for people.” Stiles says with an amused smile, Derek just rolls his eyes.

“Ok, see you later, Stiles.”

“See ya.”

*

“Ugh, why are your cabinets lacking in the food department?” Stiles says once he sees Derek appear from the hall.

“Hello, Stiles. I’m good, thank you for asking, Stiles.” Derek says, rolling his eyes. “What are you even doing here? How did you get in?”

“You really should know better than to leave me unsupervised in your living room.”

“Why does that make sense?” Derek whispers to himself. “What are you doing checking my pantry?”

“I wanted to make dinner tonight, since you cooked last time, but I came here to realize that you have literally nothing” Stiles says, turning to him. “I could have gone to the grocery store before coming here if I knew that.”

“You just showed up, I didn’t even know you were coming.” Derek answers, rubbing his hand on his face, frustrated. “If I knew that, I would have told you to bring something.”

“Oh, no, mister. Don’t put this on me. _You_ should have your pantry full of food.”

Derek throws his hands in the air and groans. “Grab your stuff, we’re going to the grocery store.” He says grumpily, storming out of the apartment, not before grabbing his keys and wallet.

“We need to buy meat and red wine!”

Stiles trails after him and closes the apartment’s front door.

*

Stiles is pushing the grocery’s cart through the hallways, picking some stuff here and there, and allowing Derek to grab the other things he needs at home. So far, Derek supposes that Stiles is going to cook pasta for them, with meat and wine. Stiles has grabbed two different bottles of red wine and when Derek looked at him curiously, he just shrugged and said that one was for cooking. He didn’t specify what was the purpose for the other one, but Derek is going on a limb here and say that it’s for drinking. He should say something about underage drinking here, he’s sure, but if Stiles gets drunk on wine he can sleep on his couch. It’s not the first time it’s happened so… Still, he doesn’t think the Sheriff would appreciate finding out about that.

“We should have taken the Jeep,” Stiles says as he finishes loading the groceries in the car’s backseat, the trunk full.

“I’m not getting inside that deathtrap of yours,” Derek says, taking the cart back to the store’s door.

Stiles scoffs at him, “ah, excuse me? That deathtrap, as you call her, has helped saving your life more times than you can remember, _sir_.” Stiles gets inside the passenger’s seat, “and besides, as much as I love your Camaro, it doesn’t have trunk! You can’t hide a dead body in your trunk, Derek!”

“Stop quoting Supernatural’s fun facts to me. I showed you that article.”

“And because of that, you should _know_ by now that your car can’t fit all your grocery bags!”

“It can fit them just fine.”

“It really can’t.”

*

“You should tell your dad that you’re going to spend the night here,” Derek tells him when they’re putting the groceries away.

Stiles has the two bottles of wine in his hands, putting one in the kitchen counter and the other one on the table.

“What, why?” Stiles comes back to the kitchen to finish taking the groceries out of their bags.

Derek pointedly looks at him and then at the bottle of wine on the table. Then back at him.

“Oh…” Stiles turns around, opens the fridge door and storages a package of cream cheese they bought, he doesn’t close the door immediately. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll do that once we finish with these. Thanks, Der.”

Derek pretends he can’t hear Stiles’ rapid heartbeat. He also pretends that he doesn’t feel his own do the same thing.


	4. At Derek's apartment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has feels. So many feels. About people dying and the Wild Hunt. Derek was taken by the WH instead of Peter. Where's Peter, you ask? Who the fuck knows? I teared up writing this, I hope I can give you the same feeling.
> 
> Also, to keep in mind, there are "long" paragraphs of dialogue, but it's because is a speech, so yeah. Bear with me.
> 
> Hope you like it!

“So, I need your help.” Stiles says once Derek opens his apartment’s door.

“You said that all the way here and _still_ haven’t explained what you need me for.”

“I’m salutatorian!” Stiles moves his hands in a “tah dah” manner and Derek blinks at him, then he smiles and wraps Stiles around in a bone-crushing hug. “Ow, ow! Human with breakable bones here, big guy!” Stiles says laughing.

“Congratulations.” Derek says once he lets him go, “I know it was hard, what with all the things happening every week.”

“Yeah. And I need to write a speech and I have an idea, but I’m not sure if it’s ok… I mean, _because_ of all the things happening every week I learnt so much about myself, but a lot of things that made me who I am today also made us lose people, you know? And I’ve seen videos about speeches, and all of them are about how life is going to treat us when for us, graduating from High School is practically a mile stone. I sure as hell didn’t know I was gonna make it alive, and I think about all of my classmates, living in fear of the same thing, but not actually knowing what was happening, you know?”

“Yeah, I know…” Derek nods and looks contemplative. “You already have your speech written, don’t you”, he gives Stiles a side smile.

“Yeah… I’m still researching though. I want to include the names of all the students who’ve died since Sophomore year.”

“That’s very nice of you.”

“Why, thank you, Derek. I _am_ a nice person.”

“Sure.”

*

Stiles has the top side of his pen in between his lips, he’s mumbling to himself, reading out loud his speech while crossing out some words and writing others. He scrubs his eyes a little bit after seeing blurry spots on the paper instead of words for the tenth time in this free period, and he sighs to himself. He closes his eyes for a few seconds, opens them and looks at his front for a few minutes, placing his chin in his hand. He closes his eyes, rubs them again and opens them, seeing that the blurry person coming slowly to  him becomes Scott.

_Damn it._

“Hey, buddy! What’re you doing?” Scott sits across from him, and looks at his notes, trying to peak something from upside down.

“I’m writing my Salutatorian speech.”

“Dude, that’s so cool! Let me see it!”

“Nope. It’s a surprise” Stiles closes his notebook and puts it inside his backpack. When he looks up, Scott is pouting at him. “Sorry, bro, but I really want it to be a surprise. Graduation is in two weeks, you can wait until then, can’t you?”

“I can, but I really want to know!” Scott continues pouting. “I heard Lydia already finished her Valedictorian speech.”

Stiles snorts amused. “Lydia probably finished her Valedictorian speech when we were in sixth grade.”

“Yeah…” Scott concedes and turns to look to the side, watching Liam walking with Mason to the Lacrosse field. “Can you imagine how it will be when we finally finish High School?” the way he says those two words makes Stiles feel like the “h” and the “s” were capital.

“Probably more freeing, since most of us are leaving town.”

“Yeah… did you decide where you’re going?”

“Berkeley. They’re offering me a full ride scholarship if I can keep my GPA, and we both know I can.”

“What about Washington?”

“I don’t know, man. I was interested in going there, you know, be a pre-FBI and all that but… After being taken by the Wild Hunt, I kind of reevaluated my life choices, you know? So, I think I’m gonna sit that one out. We have the whole Sheriff station on our side, and even though it’s not the greatest thing ever, your father is on our side too. So, I think not having me over there is not gonna make a huge difference.”

“So, what are you gonna do, then? You told me you applied but never said what was your major.”

“English. I’m still deciding my Minor.”

“You’re gonna go crazy.”

“True,” Stiles says with a short laugh. “But that way I’ll have an excuse for being interested in Mythology.”

“Oh, my God.”

Stiles rubs his eyes again, blinks a few times and then turns to look at Scott, who’s looking at him worriedly.

“Are you ok? I saw you rub your eyes when I was coming here.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m just tired.”

*

 _Red_ : _so, Danny texted me, said he was gonna send the info to my email. Wanna pick me up from school? My Jeep is at the shop._

Stiles sends the text immediately after third period, he’s checking his Twitter while walking to class when Derek answers.

**Der: Sure. But you’ll need to wait for me half an hour or more, I’m running some errands today.**

**Der: Also, stop grabbing my stuff, Stiles. The nicknames on my phone are not funny.**

_Red: yes, they are. No prob, I’ll stay in the library, text me when you get here._

*

When Derek turns off the car in front of the school, Stiles is already getting out. He comes with only his backpack hanging on his shoulder, he keeps rubbing his eyes, closing them with force and opening them again, closing his right eye, opening it and then doing the same thing with his left eye. There are some students left on the school, most of them are studying or training Lacrosse, but Derek notices that the ones that are near the parking lot let their conversation die in favor of checking Stiles out. Derek raises his eyebrows and waits for Stiles to approach the Camaro, lowering the window once he’s there.

“Put your backpack in the trunk. We’re going somewhere out of town first and then we’ll head to my apartment.”

“Sure.”

Derek notices that Stiles trips over the car’s left side after he closes the car’s trunk. He winces, hoping the car is completely ok, and then focuses on the frown on Stiles’ face.

“Are you feeling ok?”

“I think I need to go to the doctor. To get my eyes checked up.” Stiles says, before closing the car’s door. “I’m starting to see a little bit blurry and I thought it was because I was tired, but it’s getting worse.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“I’m eighteen, Derek, I don’t need a chaperone to go to the doctor anymore.”

Derek sighs and rolls his eyes. “I know you don’t, but you’ll probably will be asked to bring someone with you, or to have someone drive you home because your pupil will be dilated. You can’t drive like that.”

Stiles stays silent for a second, frowning again, and Derek can hear the moment his heart picks up.

“Why do they need to do that?” he asks.

“Because that way they can know your diagnosis.” Derek answers, denying with his head a little. “Do you want me to come with you or not?”

He hears Stiles heart beat faster than before.

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

“I’m a nice person,” Derek says, driving past the _You’re now leaving Beacon Hills_ sign. Stiles snorts.

“Yeah, sure.”

“What, I am!”

*

“So, what did Danny send?” Derek asks, after closing his apartment’s door.

“Don’t know yet, I haven’t checked my email. I’m gonna grab your laptop ‘cause mine is at home.”

Derek hums in response and he goes to the kitchen to grab an apple when the toilet in the hallway’s bathroom flushes. Stiles looks up, confused, and Derek gets out of the kitchen like his pants are on fire, he shifts to his Beta form and puts himself between Stiles and the hallway. The bathroom door opens, the light gets turned off and a man steps out. Derek relaxes immediately, shifts back to human and takes a step aside, letting Stiles see the person.

“Jesus Christ, Isaac! You almost gave us a heart attack!” Stiles says, getting up from the couch, and walking directly to him.

“That was my plan,” Isaac answers, and even though his voice is different, more rough, and he looks much older, there’s still that little ‘ray of sunshine’ thing that’s always been part of him. Stiles hugs him hard, and Isaac hugs him harder, making Stiles complain about his bones. Then he turns to look at Derek. “Hey, Hale.”

“Isaac. It’s really good to see you.” Derek answers. Stiles knows he’s uncomfortable just by hearing his tone of voice, but he’s not going to let that get in the middle of the reunion.

“Come on, hug it out!” Stiles intervenes. “You haven’t seen each other in more than a year. Hug!”

Stiles puts himself behind Derek and pushes him towards Isaac until they’re sharing the World’s Most Awkward Hug Ever. Stiles says so and laughs at Derek’s annoyed expression.

“Dude, we’ve been looking for you everywhere. We were worried something happened to you,” Stiles says eventually, when they’re sitting, eating a sandwich.

“Yeah, Danny told me. Said you were pretty desperate.”

“I don’t know if I should be mad at Danny for not telling us he spoke to you, or happy for the same reason.”

“Nah, I asked him to keep quiet. I wanted to give you guys a surprise. I’ve actually been meaning to come back here, since I’ll be going to college in California, but I didn’t know if it was ok…”

“Of course, it’s ok!” Derek interjects, pushing himself almost at the edge of the seat. “It’s more than ok.”

Isaac looks surprised for a second but then he’s smiling happily at Derek.

“So where have you been?” Stiles asks.

“You know, here are there. After the human family I was left with died, I had to hide for a few months. Went to Italy, stayed there for three months and then moved to Austria for like, six months. Went to England for a few weeks, saw Jackson there. He’s still a douche but in a much lesser level.” Stiles snorts at that. “And then came back to the States. I’ve been here for three months now.”

“What happened with that family?” Derek asks.

“Hunters. The Lebatteux were in the know and they opened their house to me, but the hunters somehow thought I was an Alpha and that I had turned the whole family when I arrived… They were so crazy and new, man, let me tell you. Didn’t even know the concept of the eye colors. But yeah, they slaughter them. When I came home, I called the police, they were all in the living room, it was awful. And they left a note saying that they were coming for me. So, I gave the police my phone number and told them that if they needed me, they could contact me, but that I was going to hide somewhere else. They never did. And I found out later that they captured the hunters.”

“Jesus fuck. That’s so messed up.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Isaac runs his hand over his hair and Derek looks at him curiously.

“How did you hide your presence from me?”

“Hmm? Oh, I found a Japanese pack up in Austria, they were friends with Noshiko and Satomi. The Alpha taught me how to hide my scent and my heartbeat. It was awesome.”

“It… comes in handy.” Stiles concedes and Isaac nods happily.

*

“Oh, my God, Derek, I can’t see anything!” Stiles laughs, blinking rapidly and opening his eyes to stare at the figure he supposes is Derek. It’s all a complete blur. “I mean, you’re Derek, right?”

“Yes, Stiles,” Derek says exasperated. “I’m gonna take you home, come on.”

“My dad won’t be home until tomorrow. Don’t leave me alone like this.” Stiles makes a horrified expression and Derek sighs.

“Alright, I’ll take you to my place. Fair warning, Isaac is there and has taken most of the space.” Stiles snorts. “Can you walk?”

“I think so, yeah, but I think it’s better if you guide me.” Stiles stands up from the chair he’s been sitting since he got out of the appointment. Takes a few steps and stubbles with a trashcan. “Ugh, sorry.”

Derek snorts and tries really hard not to full on laugh.

“Come on.” Derek grabs Stiles’ hand, starting to walk towards the hospital’s exit. Stiles stays silent for a few seconds, then adjusts his hand so their fingers are entwined. Derek squeezes their hands together and starts walking slower. “Wanna pick up food on the way there?”

“Oh, my God, yes. You’re the best.”

*

Stiles and Scott are playing Mario Kart in the Stilinski’s living room. Scott is losing, like every time they play, and he keeps trying to get Stiles distracted so he can win. Once Stiles has won the race, and has done his victory dance, they both walk up to the kitchen to prepare something for lunch.

“You look good in glasses,” Scott comments while opening the fridge.

“Really? Thank you,” Stiles blows him a kiss and Scott catches it with his hand, placing it on top of his heart. “Derek helped me pick them.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Derek lately. Are you guys together yet?”

“What! No!” Stiles says in a squeaky voice, clearing his throat then and saying with a low voice: “no.”

“But you want to,” Scott smiles softly at him and then continues, “and for what I’ve seen, Derek wants it too. What’s stopping you two?”

“I don’t know. So many stuff has happened, you know? When he was taken by the Wild Hunt, I didn’t even know a piece of our history was missing until _I_ was taken as well. I don’t even know why they chose me, but when I arrived at that train station? He was there, looking at _nothing_. He wasn’t even blinking, if I hadn’t seen him breathe, I swear that I would have thought he was dead.”

Stiles reheats some left overs from the night before and turns to look at Scott, who’s looking at him concerned.

“It was really terrifying, you know?” Scott can see that Stiles has tears in his eyes, so he stands up, walks over to him and hugs him. “For the longest time I’ve thought of Derek like this person who’s always gonna be there to save my ass, and when I saw him there, unmoving, just remembering everything we’ve been through, like a storm in my mind, it made me realize how in love with him I am.”

“Oh, man,” Scott murmurs. “I’m gonna have to start preparing that best man speech right now, aren’t I?”

“Shut up. We’re not even together.”

“But you will be. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, even when you’re looking back at him. This is the good stuff.”

“I sure hope so…”

*

“Uh… hello there.” Stiles starts. “I know this speech is supposed to be about how we’re going to be ok after we start college, and how the future will treat us, about the great opportunities that are coming and all of that but…” he takes a deep breath and looks at the people graduating with him. “I just want to talk about how _this_ , us graduating, is such an accomplishment.”

Stiles takes a second to breathe and swallow the knot on his throat.

“Guys, we’re finally out of high school. Alive. We made it alive. I know the last three years have been a constant danger, a constant fear, a constant ‘Who’s next?’ but… we did it. And we lost so many good friends, classmates, people who we’ve studied with for a long time but never knew their names, people who just transferred and were new to us but we loved, nonetheless. They died, yes, but they were _here_. They studied with us, they lived in this town, and some of us got to know them. We mourned their deaths, as it should have. We were angry, we were sad, we were afraid. All of those we’ve lost, they all live within our memories, some of them may still hurt, some of them will hurt forever, and that is completely ok. Some of us may be angry that we got to finish high school and they couldn’t. However, the most important thing we all need to remember is that we need to keep living. We have the opportunity to do that, to try our best and take advantage of all the things we’re going to face in life. We need to keep living, in honor of those who’ve died before their time, before us, in honor of Aaron, Allison, Beth, Boyd, Matt, Josh, Gabe, Garret, Lucas, Noah, Erica, Emily, Aiden, Tracy, Violent, Heather, Jack… But most importantly, we need to live for ourselves. So, yeah, class of 2013, we _made it_. This is something we all should be proud of. Congratulations.”


End file.
